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How can I live in your world of ideas? (2007)
ensemble solo piano
written for myself
premièred May 24, 2007, New York City
How can I live in your world of ideas? take its unwieldy name from the caption of a cartoon I drew, which depicts a young penguin and his parents in a museum, looking at a painting of a naked woman. This piece starts out as a passacaglia or theme and variations, but is then gradually overtaken by extraneous material from somewhere else entirely. Originally written for two pianos as part of Shy and Mighty. I transcribed it for a solo pianist (myself) because I needed something to play at short notice; in its solo version, however, the pianist must work much more strenuously to denote the mercurial transitions (“needle-drops”) which characterize the piece.
Listen
Recorded 12/6/08 live at Firehouse 12, New Haven.
Timothy Andres, piano.